Leather-fitting machine



E. B. LYONS.

LEATHER FITTING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED FEB.I0,1921. 1,404,399, I Patented Jan. 24, 1922,

2 SHtETS-SHEET I- \vwuum E. B. LYONS. LEATHER FITTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. I0. 1921- 2 SHhETS$HEET 2- Patent-ed Jan. 24, 1922.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EARLE B. LYONS, OF NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, ASSIGNOR TO JOHN D. GARDINER AND GEORGE R. BEARDSELL, 0F NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

LEATHER-FITTING MACHINE.

' Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 24, 1922.

Application filed February 10, 1921. 7 Serial No. 443,821.

To all whom it may concern:

e it known that I, EARLE B. LYoNs, a citizen of the United States, residing: at Nashua, in the county of l-lillsboro and State of New Hampshire, have invented new and useful Improvements in Leather- Fitting Machines, of which the following is a specification.

The type of machine to which this invention relates is one for performing the operation known technically in the art as fitting leather; that is, of compressing leather pieces having extended area to a substantially uniform or increased degree of firmness and density through pressure applied by means of a roll. This operation is performed mostly on leather having substantial thickness, whereinstiffness is an important consideration, such as that used for soles, inner soles, counter stiffeners for shoes (commonly known as counters) toe caps, etc. Different parts ofthe skin or side of leather vary in firmness. and closeness of texture, and unless they are brought to a substantially uniform condition in all parts, the soles, counters and other articles cut from leather are liable .to' be stretched and the leather are liable to be stretched and stresses applied in the subsequent operations of, trimming, channeling, skiving, etc. I

The machines used for the purpose stated by which the best .esult and greatest homogeneity of the product are secured are those in which a rapidly reciprocating roll of relatively short length is brought to bear upon the leather iece supported by a bed beneath the roll. evere pressure mu st'be' applied through and by means of such roll in order to accomplish satisfactory results, because light pressure will not have any permanent effect in compressing the leather. And this pressure must be frequently relaxed and reapplied'to allow different parts of the leather piece to be placed in position to be operated on. I

To effect great enough compression of the soft areas of leather pieces, which areas may berelativelygsinall and of, irregular outline, requires that the rollshould be comparatively short and that it should be applied to limited areas of the leather at any one time; and the fulfillment ofythese requirements compels the piece. undergoing treatment to be shifted from time to time until add its area has been ro]led. ,S1 1ch Shifting'of the leather can be accomplished in the desired manner only when the pressure of the roll has been relaxed.

Heretofore such machines of the sort just described as have gone into commercial use have depended entirely upon the muscular effort of the operator to develop the necessary pressure between the roll and the work. Even with lever and toggle mechanisms having the greatest possible mechanical ad vantage, in proportion to the necessary range of separation between the work-support and the roll and to the range of movement possible to be allowed to the treadle on which the operator exerts force, the muscular effort required is severe; and the laborious character of the work is intensified by the fact that the frequent relaxations of pressure necessary for shifting the work-piece have required this effort to be constantly relaxed and reapplied. Practically the only way in which the operator can do this work is by standing on one foot and stepping with his other foot upon the treadle, raising himself and applying his whole weight to the treadle when the need for extreme pressure occurs. Then the jar of the roll in passing over the edge of the work-piece, which always occurs when the outer parts of a piece are being worked upon, is communicated through the mechanism to the operator and increases the fatiguing effect of his labor. In short, then, operators of these machines have been required to perform the hardest and most exhausting sort of labor and at the same time to manipulate the work-pieces and exercise skill and judgment in so presenting them to the action of the roll that they may be treated over their whole areas as quickly as possible and with the least possible labor. These conditions have resulted, in many cases, in causing more or less serious bodily injury to operators and have made it difiicuit for the producer of fitted leather to secure operators who are willing and able to work with these machines.

Many efforts have been made in the past to provide an automatic or semi-automatic meansfor applying pressure of the sort required in these machines, for the benefit both of the welfare of the work peo 1e and of the manufacturer for whose pro not there is needed the quality of the rolling action herein described, but all such efforts have been abortive, object has been to accomhanging frame.

plish the result which has heretofore been unsuccessfully attempted, that is, to equip leather fitting machines of the type here described with labor-saving mechanism.

This object has been accomplished by the means which I will now describe in connection with the following specification and the drawings forming a part thereof disclosing the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to the drawings Figure 1 is an elevation of the machine inwhich my invention is embodied as viewed from the side opposite to that on which the operator takes his position.

Figure 2 is a sectional view on an enlarged scale taken on line 2-2 of Figure 1 and showing in elevation the parts at the right of said line.

Figure 3 is a section on line 3'3 of Figure 2.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts wherever they occur in all the I figures.

I The structure designated by the numeral 5 .represents a frame which is massive enough to support the moving parts and sustain the stresses applied by and through such parts without sensible distortion. 6 is a table on which is mounted a work-sup-' porting bed upon which the leather pieces to be compressed or fitted by rolling action are placed one at a-time. That part of the table which supports the bed is made of a.

springy board or plank which is secured a-t its ends to the rigid frame and is adapted to be sprung upwardly 1n its middle part to press the work-piece against the roll.

Other. boards or planks may be arranged in front and in rear of the one which supports the bed so as to furnish a table of as great an area as may be required, having regard tot-he size of the pieces of leather which may be operated upon.

' The'roll which acts upon the leather is shown at 8. Its trunnions are mounted rotatively in the carriage 9 which travels on a guideway 10 supported from the over- It carries trundle rolls 11 which bear on a. rigid track or runway 12 through which the reaction thrust of the roll is borne. A pitman 13 is connected by a wrist-pin 14: to the carriage and by a 'cranl'r-pin 15 to the disk 16 on a shaft 17 driven by a pulley 18 and belt 19 from a conveniently located counter shaft. This pulley is driven at a high enough speed to give a rapid reciprocation to the roll'in a path included between the extremities of the bed. The roll may'ha-ve any. diameter which is not so small as to concentrate the pressure upon an'area so narrow as to injure theleathenand on the other hand is not so large as to distribute the pressure too pressure-applying widely to obtain great enough unit intensity of pressure. In its length (in the direction ofits axis) the roll is short enough to apply concentrated pressure to zones of much less width than the dimensions of the pieces operated on.

On the bottom member of the frame there is mounted a block 20, which rests on a rubber pad 21,01 equivalent yielding and resilient bottom, in order to absorb the shocks which occur when the roll passes over the edge of the workpiece and to quench the vibrations resulting from'this cause.

. A fulcrum member 22 rises from the block and supports a lever 23. This fulcrum member is in the-nature of a plate or blade set edgewise having a blunt, rounded upper edge which enters a. groove in the enlarged rounded end of the lever in a'manner simila-rto a knife edge bearing. In-the upper part of the lever, a 'short distance to one side'of a vertical plane through the fulcrum member,is a notch which receives the lower end of a toggle link 24," the latter being a. plate tapered to-a'blunt knife edge at.

both of two oppositeed'ges. The upper edge enters anotch 25 in the under side of a secondary lever 26which is connected with the lever 23 by a link 27 In the upper side of the lever 26; and laterally 'ofi'setfrom the vertical plane through the bearing center of V the toggle link and secondary lever is a notch which receives the lower edge of a lifter bar 28, which bar is adapted to apply force through adjusting screws 29 and blocks 30 to the bed '7, either directly or through the spring beam on which the bed is mounted. The levers 23 and 26, with the link 24 and bar 28, form a double. toggle linkage in which all of the fulcrum points are. brought more or less nearly into line when the outer arm of lever 23 is depressed, the secondary lever 26'then being moved in unison with lever 23 by the connecting'link 27.

fuUpright guides 301 embrace. trunnions 23 and 26 on the fulcrum ends of the. levers 23 and 26, respectively,-maintaining these parts of said levers invertical alinement while pernciiitting the trunnions 26 to rise and descen Figure 1 shows the machine in the reluredposition when the lever arms are raised and the toggle linkage is broken, the bed being then separated fromthe roll by a space wide enough to permit insertion of leather pieces having the thickness'of sole leather; A spring arm 31, fixed at one end mechanism transforms pressure applied on the long arm of lever 23 into a greatly multiplied thrusting force of the bed toward the roll. The intensity of the pressure so ex e-rted upon apiece of leather and likewise the location of the path inwhic-h the bed is moved may be modified by adjustment of the screws 29. i i

Power'mechanism is provided for applying force upon the lever'23 under control of the operator, and thismechanism consists ofa belt pulley 33 looselymounted on a shaft 34, a clutch for coupling said pulley to said shaft, a second shaft 35'carrying a gear wheel 36, which is driven by a'pinion 37 fixed on the shaft 34, and an arm 38 clutched frictionally on; shaft 35 and carrying a roll 39 arranged to bear on arm 23. The clutch which I have provided for connecting pulley33 to shaft '34 atthe will of the operator is of a well known friction'type and is partly shownin Figure 2. The friction producing elements are'controlled by levers 40 which 'are' adapted to be spread apart by a conical ended sleeve 41' sliding on the shaft 34 and movable "endwisethereon by means of arms 42 fast to a rock-shaft 43 and having studs or'rolls' which enter-an encircling groove 44 in said sleeve. lVh'en this sleeve is moved to the right, with respect to Figure" 2', the clutch levers 40 are spread apart and the clutch is set conversely, when the sleeve is moved 'ih'the opposite direction the clutch is released and the belt pulley is allowed to turn idly. I have not at tempted to show the details of the clutch because said. details are nota part of my 'inventionand the particular clutch which I have adopted is obtainablejin the open market and is well known.;l*.The belt which drives the pulley33 is shown'at '45 and is driven from a countershaftfi (Not shown.)

' Shifting of the clutch-operating sleeve'is effected in one directionby'a treadle 46 pivoted to brackets 47 on thebed frame and connected by a link 48 with an arm 49 keyed to rock-shaft 43; and'lin the/ opposite direction by aspring 50 attachedat" one end to said arm and atthe other end to allug 51 on theframe. t v The friction clutch bywhich arm is mounted on shaft "35, and through which force is applied to'sa id arm, is shown in de tail in Figure 3; ltf compris'es a sleeve-52 keyed to the shaft, a hub "53 o n ar1n"38 (which embraces part of saidsleeve) anda block 54 of suitablefriction causingmaterial, such as hard wood, contained in a holder 55 which is secured by bolts 56" to lugs projecting from opposite sides of the hub 53. The sleeve 52 and hub 53 are preferably made of metal, as steel or cast iron, and the hub may be lined with any of the metals used for bearings, or it may be lined with wood or other friction causing material. Wood is preferred, for the friction termined, according to need, by setting up or relaxingthe bolts 56. A counterweight 57 is nrovided'to raise the arm 38, or to assist the sp'ringarm 31 in doing so, when the power application is discontinued.

fIt is to be understood that the roll 8 is reciprocated'constantly whether any leather is presented to the operating bed or not and that pressure is applied upon the bed toward the roll when a piece of leather is in position to be rolled'upon, and is relaxed when such piece is to be removed or shifted. When pressure is to be applied for this purpose, the

operator presses on the treadle 46, thereby 'c'ouplinglever 33 to'shaft- 34, and the arm 38 is then c'aused to press on and depress the lever 233 'jWhe'n this lever is depressed as far as it will-go, (this movement being preferably limited by a stop 58) the friction clutch 53,54 slips, but constantly maintains enough pressure to hold the toggle linkage in the displaced position'to'which it has thus been brought ;j'thus causing the leather to be forced against the roll with the desired degree of pressure; But the initial force is applied and maintained"mechanically and th'e op'erators exertion islimited to the effort needed to preventthe spring 50 from returning the treadle and uncoupling the primary clutch, which effort is so slight as to be inappreciable and to have no fatiguing effect. Instead of the operator being required to apply his whole weight on the treadle and. be continually stepping up and down, he needs now only to make slight movements of" his foot about the ankle joint, and mayeven sit down to his work. whole attention maythen be given to the His manipulation"ofythe leather necessary for bringing all of its partsunder the action of thef i'oll," {An equivalent treadle arranged to operate theprimary clutch substantially in tlie mannerfherein described may be arrangedfor use by the operatorwhen standing on the floor.

What I claimand desire to tels Patent is'i':

1 In a leather-rolling machine having a work-supporting bed and a reciprocating secure by Letrolll', forming a. leathenrolling couple of whichone of the members is movable toward and1away from the ot-her for exerting and relaicing pressure 'on the interposed work piece, the improvement in mechanism for forcing that member of said couple which is so movable toward the other member, consisting of a power driver, a driven member connectible with said driver, operator-controlled means for connecting anddisconnecting said driver and driven member, and a force-transmitting mechanism arranged to receive force application from said driven member and apply force to the movable member of said couple. I v

2. Ina leather rollingmachine having a work-supporting bed. and a reciprocating roll, forming a leather rolling couple of which one ofthe members is movable toward and away from the other for exerting and relaxing pressure on the interposed work piece, the improvement in mechanism for forcing that member of'said couple which 1s so movable toward the other member, consistlng, of a power driver, a drlven member ,connectible with and disconnectible from said driver, under control of theoperator, and a transmission mechanism arran ed to receive motion and force from said riven member, and to transmit diminished motion with increased force to the movable member of said couple, said transmission mechanism including machine elements frictionally clutched together, one of which is adapted toslip relatively to the other when the predetermined limit of force transmission. is reached. 1

3. In a leather rolling machine having a work-supporting bed and a reciprocating roll,- forming a leather-rolling couple of which one ofthe members is movable toward and away from the other for exerting and relaxing pressureon the interposed work piece, the improvement in mechanism for, forcing that memberof said couple, which is so movable toward the other member, consisting in the combination with a lever having a long arm arranged to receive force and a short arm arranged to deliver force with multi plied intensity to said movable member, of

a power-actuateddriver, and intermediate means between said driver and said rlon lever arm arranged to transmit force an motion from the former to the latter.

4. In aleather'fitting machine including the combination .of a work supporting bed,

7 a reciprocat'ableroll arranged to travel over .said bed and a pressure multiplying mechanical linkage constructed and arranged to apply pressure; through the bed and roll to an interposed work-piece, the combination with said linkage of a power mechanism under the control of an operator adapted 5. In a leatherfitting' machine as set forth 'in' Claim 4, and .inuwhich the pressure multiplying linkage is provided with an arm adaptedto receive pressure applicatlons, the characteristics of said power mechanism as comprising a driven shaft and a pressure applying arm frictionally mounted upon said shaft and arranged to be pressed against the first-named arm;

6. r In a leather fitting machine as set forth in Claim 4, the characteristics of said power mechanism as comprising a shaft, a pulley loose with respect. to said shaft, a primary clutch operable by the operator for connecting and disconnecting said'pulley with and from said shaft, and. means frictionally driven by saidshaft for applying, force to said pressure multiplying linkage.

7. In a leather fitting machine including a reciprocating roll and a work-supporting bed forming a leather-rolling couple, one member of which is movable toward and away from the other for applying pressure 7 to a work-piece interposed between them and for relaxing said pressure, respectively, and a lever and toggle mechanism arranged to exert pressure upon the movable member of said couple toward the other. member and having a load receiving arm, power mechanism for loading said arm comprising a shaft, an arm frictionally clutched upon said shaft and arranged to be operated by rotation of upon by said rollerand mechanism for applying pressure through said bed against a work-piece interposed between the bed and roller, the combination with said mechanism of a power mechanism vfor exerting and maintaining'intermittent pressure upon the aforesaid mechanism which consists of a rotatable shaft,;an arm mounted uponjsaid shaft and having a 'frictionally' gripping mediulnby which 'it .is secured to theshaft with provisionfor'slipping thereon when it encounters a sufficiently non-yielding resistance, said arm being arranged V to bear against the load-receivingpart of said pressure-applying mechanism, a driver loosely mounted with respect to said shaft, aprimary clutch adapted to connect said driver with said shaft, and operator-controlled meanls for connecting and disconnecting said clutc In testimony whereof I havevafiixed my signature.

" UEVARLEV B. LYONS.

Certificate of Correction.

It is hereby certified that in Letters Patent N 0. 1,404,899, granted January 24-, 1922, upon the application of Earle B. Lyons, of Nashua, New Hampshire, for an improvement in Leather-Fitting Machines, errors appear in the printed specification requiring correction as follows: Page 1, strike out line 27 and after the Word and, line 28, insert the Words squeezed out of shape by the pressures and;

and that the said Letters Patent should be read With these corrections therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Ofiice.

Signed and sealed this 7th day of March, A. D., 1922.

[SEAL] \VM. A. KINNAN,

Acting Commissioner of Patents. 

